WalkingSin (19 page)

Her shoulders tightened, as if she was
about to lift up. Dax gently pressed down on them so she couldn’t move.
“Sometimes talking is easier if you don’t look the other person in the eyes.”

Silence again. When she didn’t speak for
almost a minute, Dax decided it was up to him to break the silence…to tell her
everything he felt.

“Okay, if you don’t want to talk, I will.
I’ve missed you, Kelcey. I’ve never missed a woman once the sex was over. I
never gave her another thought. It’s been different with you. I enjoy being
with you both in and out of bed. I like the way your nose wrinkles when you
laugh. I like the way your eyes sparkle when you’re happy. I like how you don’t
hold back your opinion on my photographs, but always tell me the truth. I like
how much Walker loves you. I like how much you care about Alaina and Emma.”

He stopped to give her a chance to comment,
if she wanted to. He waited almost a minute again.

“What are you saying, Dax?”

He leaned over so he could speak directly
into her ear. “I’m saying, I love you.”

She lifted her head very slowly. Eyes wide,
lips parted, she stared at him. “What?”

“I’m pretty sure you heard me.”

“You love me?”

He nodded. “So much, I don’t know how to
put it into words.”

Tears filling her eyes, she raised one
trembling hand and touched his lips. “I love you too.”

Later there would be time for desire, for
passion. Now he kissed her softly, gently, a bare meeting of their lips…telling
her without words how much he cared for her.

Dax continued the gentle massage. “How’s your
neck?”

Her eyes glowed with happiness. “Much
better.”

“Come home with me after dinner and I’ll
give you a full-body massage.”

“On one condition.”

“What?”

“Since I’m naked during a massage, you have
to be naked too.”

Oh, he loved that impish grin that turned
up her lips. “But you’re covered, so I don’t really see any of your body except
what I’m working on.”

“I don’t
have
to be covered.”

This situation sounded better and better.
“I think you just want to be bent over my massage table again.”

“Works for me.”

Dax burst out laughing. He had the feeling
life with Kelcey would never be boring. “You have a deal.”

The phone rang as Kelcey rose from the
chair, reached for her shirt on the bed and tugged it over her head. Once her
clothes were straightened, Dax took her hand and led her from the room.

A roar greeted them as they stepped into
the living room. Dax looked at the TV screen to see one of the Cowboys doing a
celebratory dance in the end zone. “Who’s ahead?”

“We are, now.” Rye looked over at them. His
gaze drifted down to Dax’s hand wrapped around Kelcey’s. He winked at his
brother and gave Dax a subtle thumbs-up.

Beverly walked into the living room,
stopping short when she saw Dax and Kelcey. “Good, you’re through. I was about
to come see you, Kelcey.”

“Oh?”

“You have a visitor in town. He stopped at
Walt Kinney’s station and Walt called me to see if it was all right that he
give the gentleman instructions to our house. I told Walt that would be fine.”

Kelcey glanced at Dax, confusion in her
eyes, then looked back at Beverly. “A gentleman? Who is it?”

“Your uncle.”

Chapter Fifteen

The room spun around her. Kelcey had never
fainted in her life, but had a strong suspicion she was about to if she didn’t
sit down.

Dax must have read her mind. He urged her
down onto the arm of the couch. “What’s wrong? Don’t you want to see your
uncle?”

Her uncle was
here
. In Lanville.
Which
uncle?
she wondered. It didn’t matter. She couldn’t see either of them. “I
have to get out of here. I can’t be here when he arrives.”

Jumping up from the couch, she made it no
more than a step when Dax wrapped his arms around her from behind and stopped
her. “Hold it! What’s going on, Kelcey?”

Dax told her he loved her just a few
minutes ago. She’d never been so happy in her life. Now her past was on the way
to destroy everything. She twisted, trying to get Dax to release her. “Let go
of me!
I have to get out of here!
”

“Did I do something wrong?” Beverly asked
in a small voice.

Kelcey stopped struggling long enough to
glance at Dax’s mother. Beverly’s eyes filled with tears and she looked
mortified. It wasn’t her fault that Kelcey had two rotten bastards for uncles.

“Mom, I’m sure you did nothing wrong.” Dax
whirled Kelcey around to face him. “Talk to me,
right now
.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Kelcey saw
Alaina and Emma rush into the living room. Concern and fear covered both their
faces. Dax looked at them, then back at Kelcey. “Are you going to tell me
what’s going on, or do I have to get Alaina and Emma to tell me?”

Kelcey looked at Alaina, who gave her a
nod. “It’s okay, Kelcey. Tell him the truth.”

She frantically looked around the room. She
couldn’t blurt out the truth in front of these wonderful people who had been
nothing but kind to her, had been more of a family than her blood relatives.

“Kelcey, what’s going on?” Dax squeezed her
upper arms. “You can talk in front of my family. Whatever is wrong, no one here
will judge you.”

She looked into Dax’s eyes and saw nothing
but love and caring. His support gave her the courage to admit the truth.
“It-it was my uncles wh-who raped me.”

Silence filled the room until Beverly
whispered, “Oh my God.”

Dax seemed stunned. Kelcey couldn’t blame
him. He probably never expected her to say something so awful.

“Your
uncles
raped you?” he asked,
his voice hoarse.

Kelcey nodded.

“When?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to
me
. When did this
happen?”

“A long time ago.”

Dax’s eyes narrowed and he squeezed her
upper arms again. “Define ‘a long time ago’.”

“I-I was eight the first time.”

“Fuck,” Rye muttered.

“I’ll second that,” Griff said.

“The
first
time?” Dax demanded. “How
many times did it happen?”

“Se-several over two years’ time.”

“Where the hell were your parents when this
happened?”

“My dad died when I was six. My mother…”
Her voice broke. It still hurt all the way to her soul to know her mother
hadn’t believed her. “She took her brothers’ side.”

Dax hung his head. Unsure how he felt about
what she’d told him, Kelcey looked at her friends. They were both crying. Tears
tightened Kelcey’s throat, yet her eyes remained dry. Her heart ached too much
to cry.

The doorbell rang. Kelcey jumped. Dax
lifted his head. She’d never seen murder in a person’s eyes. She saw it in
Dax’s. “Wh-what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to kill him.”

He headed for the front door. Before he was
halfway there, Beverly stepped in front of him.

“Get out of my way, Mom.”

“No. You aren’t going to do something
stupid.”

“It won’t be stupid. I’m going to pound his
head against the side of the house.”

“With our help,” Rye said as he and Griff
stepped to either side of Dax.

“No. My sons are not going to end up in
jail. Kenneth, answer the door.”

Growling softly, Walker moved in front of
Kelcey. She reached down and grasped the scruff of his neck to keep him from
charging at her uncle. She braced herself to face the man who had hurt her so
much. Kenneth opened the door. A handsome man in his late forties stood on the
porch.

Kelcey had never seen him in her life.

The man smiled. “Hello. I’m here to see
Kelcey Ewing.” He held up a business card for Kenneth to see. “I’m Bruce
Jensen.”

Kenneth took the card, studied it, then
faced Kelcey. “Do you know this man?”

“No.”

Dax looked at her too. “He isn’t your
uncle?”

Kelcey shook her head. “I don’t know who he
is.”

Kenneth held up the business card. “His
card says he’s an attorney.”

Bruce Jensen smiled again. “If I could be
permitted to come in, I can explain my presence here.”

“It’s up to you, Kelcey,” Kenneth said.

Surrounded by the Colemans, her friends and
Walker, Kelcey felt completely safe. She nodded.

Bruce stepped over the threshold. He
stopped short, a worried expression on his face, when he saw the Coleman
triplets standing together. “Uh, perhaps I could speak to Ms. Ewing alone?”

Dax crossed his arms over his chest. “Ain’t
gonna happen, fella. Whatever you have to say, you say in front of all of us.”

He looked over at Kelcey. “Ms. Ewing? Is
that all right with you?”

Kelcey gazed at everyone in the room.
They’d formed a semi-circle around her, protecting her. She barely knew Beverly
and Kenneth, yet they already treated her as if she belonged in their family.
Her chest tightened with emotion. She lifted her chin. “You can talk to me in
front of my family.”

Dax winked at her. That simple gesture
eased the fear from her heart. She gave him a small smile.

“Won’t you sit down, Mr. Jensen?” Beverly
asked.

“Thank you. And it’s Bruce, please.”

Kelcey sat on the couch, Dax right next to
her. Walker lay at her feet, staring at the stranger in the room. She thought
she saw Bruce swallow as he sat in the chair closest to Kelcey.

“He, uh, won’t attack, will he?”

“Not unless I tell him to,” Dax said.

That didn’t seem to make Bruce feel any
better. Kelcey waited until everyone had settled in a chair or on the floor
before she turned back to Bruce. “Why did you pretend to be my uncle?”

“Because I doubted if anyone would help me
find you unless I pretended to be a relative.”

“Why did you want to find me? I don’t know
you.”

“I was your mother’s attorney, Kelcey. May
I call you Kelcey?”

She nodded. Bruce reached into his jacket
pocket and withdrew a thick, legal-sized envelope. “I believe this will explain
everything.”

He held out the envelope to her. Kelcey
clasped her hands together, not knowing for sure if she wanted to see what the
envelope contained.

“Do you want me to look at it?” Dax asked,
his voice gentle. “Or Alaina or Emma?”

“I can tell you what’s in it,” Bruce said.
“It’s a copy of your mother’s will and a personal letter to you.”

Kelcey blinked. “Her will?”

Bruce nodded. “She passed away two weeks
ago from lung cancer.”

Kelcey remembered her mother smoking almost
nonstop. She had no idea if her mother continued to smoke after Kelcey went to
boarding school since she never went home for visits. The last time she saw
Claudia Ewing, Kelcey had been ten years old. She didn’t know if her mother had
ever remarried, had moved somewhere else, had any more children. When she left
San Francisco, she never looked back.

She should feel something. Kelcey thought
she should feel some kind of remorse or sadness at the passing of the woman who
had given her life.

Nothing.

“I don’t know what the letter says,” Bruce
said, “but your mother asked me to have you read it. In fact, she told me to
beg you to read it, if that was necessary.”

Kelcey reached out and took the envelope from
Bruce. She saw her name written in her mother’s perfect penmanship. She stared
at her name while she asked her next question. “Do you know if my mother’s two
brothers are still alive?”

“Kirt is in prison, serving a long sentence
for a variety of white collar crimes. Frank was killed in a car accident
several years ago.”

That meant neither uncle could ever hurt
her again. The tightness in Kelcey’s chest eased a bit. It eased even more when
Dax slipped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple. She gave him a
grateful smile, then slid her finger beneath the envelope’s seal. She withdrew
a single piece of her mother’s custom stationery. After clearing her throat,
she began to read aloud.

Kelcey,

There are no words I can write to make
amends for how badly I hurt you. I couldn’t believe Kirt and Frank would ever
do something so horrible, especially to my baby. It was completely unthinkable.

Frank admitted the truth to me while he
was in the hospital after a major car accident. The injuries he suffered
eventually took his life. Before he died, he told me how much he hated what
he’d done to you. It had been Kirt’s idea, but he’d gone along with it. He’d
hated himself his entire life because of it.